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'For Lebioda's sake, where am I supposed to search for him?'
Ciri looked wistfully at the vibrant street and crowds of people, passing to and fro, as if they were ants in an ant hill. Their eyes were somewhat empty and jaded. Without stopping for a moment, clangorous and weird carts were racing along a wide road. They were horseless and exhaling acrid fumes. Monotypic, engineered by a dull mind, cubical structures under a grey and low sky.
Ciri squirmed, not out of cold. Someone of the crowd brushed shoulders with her – she flinched and instinctively tried to look after the clumsy or insolent stranger but they dropped out of sight almost instantly.
'Where am I to go? I can't just zap in front all of these people. I knew, we shouldn't have split up, so that now I have to meander. One day I'll just start doing it my way and we'll see what you're going to say to it.'
With a sigh she put her hand in her pocket and produced an amulet on a silver chain from it. Then she quickly put it on, hiding it under her shirt. 'Fine, aen Saevherne, let's do it your way this time and see what happens.'
She sighed again and closed her eyes for better concentration. 'Where are you?' With her breath uneven and her head starting to spin, Ciri tottered for a moment. She mindlessly pressed her palm agaist her chest, covering the spot where the amulet was - hot as an ember it was now, burning her skin red. 'Oh shit, how I hate this!'
She opened her eyes and had a look around. She was already attracting attention: most likely, due to the sword behind her back.
The feeling was as if she had lowered the stuff by the pailful last night but as a reward now she could see, now she knew where to go - just across the road. But how was she going to get there if the carts never stopped? There may be a chance to get through and stay alive if she spotted an opportunity and squeezed herself through a larger opening between carts. She waited a few seconds and rushed forward the moment she felt ready... Metallic clang as hellish as a scream of a wounded siren. The crowd just stopped and gaped.
On the other side of the street, Ciri turned around to have a look – two carts had crashed against each other. 'I hope the passengers are not harmed.'
Shaking her head, she forced herself not to think of the accident, all the more so because the amulet was dragging her underground. But how...
As she looked closer, she saw a descending staircase that ended in a dark arch. A passage, and a safe one, for so many people with mundane expressions on their faces were using it to get underground.
'Perhaps I am not going to kill you after all.'
The passage turned out to be lighter and broader than she had expected and lead into a long and grey tunnel. It was stuffy and damp inside, and much more crowded than outside. Everyone was in a hurry, looking straight ahead. And there was also music. The low arched cealing was humming its plaintive tune and carrying it in both directions. A strange, far-away, luring tune, capable of making this sad place even sadder. 'What a haunting warble!' Ciri wished to get away from it as soon as possible.
The silver of her amulet suddenly started to burn her skin like liquid fire, impelling her to stop and turn around.
'What the f...'
'Are you eager to listen to that?' She addressed the amulet. 'It's a flute. I hate flutes, you know... A flute? This just can't happen...'
As luck would have it, the owner of the flute was hiding behind his audience. Just like the others, he was dressed plain and colorless. His face, covered by a hood, was in deep shadow, except for his chiselled and pointy chin.
Giving a smirk and keeping her eyes on the musician, Ciri took off her amulet and put it back in her pocket. 'In the name of Dana' she thought to herself 'what is this act? Does it have to be so sad, Avallac'h? If you go on like that, my heart is going to break. I heard a lively tune from you only once, when we met. Did I turn your life into hell on that day? Or maybe I'm just deceiving myself: the tune is a match for this world... No, it is not: the music is good, it's just not to my liking.'
Ending his performance in an exceptionally heart-breaking note, the elf imbosomed the flute with a magician's gesture, nodded to the crowded and got down on his haunches... to collect his fee – the coins that were scattered on the floor.
The crowd dissolved quickly and Ciri finally could get closer.
'What was that?'
Hiding the coins in his fist, Avallac'h looked at her archly.
'What do you think it was?'
'I'm lost in conjectures, to tell the truth.'
'It was all for money.'
'Do we need it?' Ciri raised her eyebrow.
'Yes. To pay for the subway.'
'For WHAT?'
'For the subway.' the sage replied calmly.
Ciri bit her lip and nodded.
'Fine, I got it. Naturally. I should have figured it out myself. And where is this... 'someway'?
'Straight ahead. I will show you.'
She sighed.
'You could have just used magic.'
'I could but why invent a megascope? Let's move. Follow me closely if you don't wish to get lost and use the amulet again.
'It hurts when I use it, did I tell you?'
'It's a side effect.'
'Listen, Avallac'h, what was that tune that you played? I've never heard it before.'
'This is a mourning seh...' A sudden and loud roaring sound from below drowned his words.
'What did you say? A mourning who? Saevherne?'
Avallac'h turned his head and looked at her strangely.
'Shepherd, Zireael. This piece is called 'Lonely Shepherd'.'
'Indeed, he must be very lonely.' She mumbled, blushing and looking at the elf's back.
They went with the flow of the crowd, downstairs.